Documents of the Liebermann family

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Belgium

Holding institution:: Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society

Holding institution (official language):: Centre d’Études et de Documentation Guerre et Sociétés Contemporaines

Postal address:: Luchtvaartsquare 29 / Square de l’Aviation 29, 1070 Bruxelles (Anderlecht)

Phone number:: +32 (0)2 556 92 11

Web address:: http://www.cegesoma.be/

Email:: cegesoma@cegesoma.be

Reference number:: CHRDWConS-Brussels-AA 1551

Title:: Documents of the Liebermann family

Title (official language):: Documenten familie Liebermann

Creator/accumulator:: Liebermann, Benek

Date(s):: 1958/1971

Date note:: ca. 1960s

Language:: Yiddish; Hebrew

Extent:: 4 boxes

Scope and content:: This fonds, which at the time of writing has not yet been ordered and for which no finding aid exists, firstly contains documentation (excerpts from magazines, press cuttings) and handwritten articles by Liebermann. These documents concern i.a. the Jewish resistance during the Second World War, organisations of former Jewish partisans and Shoah survivors, associations of former combatants in the International Brigades, etc. The fonds also contains correspondence with associations in Belgium and abroad (i.a. World Federation of Jewish Journalists, Mapam, Arbeter Ring-Workmen’s Circle), with various periodicals in Yiddish, with the Comité pour la Langue et la Culture Yiddish (in which Liebermann was involved), etc.

Archival history:: Donation by Rudi Van Doorslaer.

Administrative/biographical history:: Benek Liebermann (‘Dov’, ‘Bernard’)(1910-1996), originating from Polish Galicia, settled in Antwerp in 1929. His political engagement was a constant in his life. In Belgium (as in Poland) he initially was a member of Hashomer Hatzair (and responsible for Hehalutz matters). Liebermann soon founded Arbeter Yugnt, an organisation for the Jewish anti-fascist working youth. His syndicalist activity (i.a. in the jewellery industry) also started in this period. His transfer to the Belgian communist party (1932) was a logical extension of his membership of the Kulturfarayn. For quite some time Liebermann remained active within the communist movement – he established the Joodse Arbeiders Sport Klub (JASK) in 1935, participated with JASK in the Workers’ Olympiad in Barcelona (1936), was heavily involved in the Comité d’Aide à l’Espagne républicaine, etc. During the Second World War, Liebermann helped fund the underground communist party; his house served as a ‘mailbox’ for the Red Orchestra. Liebermann and his wife Feigla (Fela) Gross also supported, together with rabbi Brodt, the Jews of Antwerp banished to the Limburg province. Liebermann, living in hiding in France since 1942, survived the war with the help of fake identity papers. After 1945 Liebermann and Gross, while initially militants of Solidarité Juive, would soon become alienated from the communist party and eventually join the Centre Communautaire Laïc Juif. In addition, Liebermann was a member of the (Israeli) Mapam party. Later in life he committed himself especially to the memory of anti-fascism and the Jewish resistance – i.a. by organising a reunion of Jewish veterans of the International Brigades (Madrid, 1986), as co-founder of the Comité d’Hommage des Juifs de Belgique à leurs Héros et Sauveurs, as board member of the Union des anciens Résistants juifs de Belgique, etc. He was also an ardent defender of Yiddish as a language and culture. Since the 1930s he wrote for the Jewish press in Belgium (e.g. Yiddishe Presse) and abroad (e.g. Naïe Presse), and he was the founder of the Comité pour la Culture et la Langue Yiddish, which he represented within the CCOJB. Professionally, Liebermann (originally a jeweller) became active in trade and industry (i.a. in France and Israel) after the war. He established the holiday camp of the Kaduri school (1971) and was also the founder of the Prix de la Fondation Liebermann of the Institut des Études du Judaïsme (1983). (J.-P. Schreiber, “Liebermann, Benek dit Bernard dit Dov”, in J.-P. Schreiber, Dictionnaire biographique des Juifs de Belgique. Figures du judaïsme belge, XIXe-XXe siècles, Brussel, De Boeck, 2002, pp. 225-226.)

Access points: persons/families:: Liebermann, Benek

Subject terms:: Communism; Holocaust; Holocaust--Rescue and resistance; Holocaust--Survivors; Jewish languages; Jewish languages--Yiddish; Jewish political activity; Jewish self-defence and resistance; Socialism; Yiddish periodicals; Zionism; Zionism--Zionists

Yerusha Network member:: State Archives of Belgium

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